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werty316
07-27-2006, 05:42 PM
From the motorways to the airways

Most of us know Honda for making ultra-reliable cars, SUVs and minivans that have pretty high resale value. Well, the company is adding a new 7-seater to its stable, but instead of conquering the roadways, this Honda will soar through the air. Honda hopes to make its new HondaJet the "Honda Civic of the sky." "Aviation has been an important dream of Honda for more than four decades. Our goal is consistent with the philosophy of other Honda products -- to provide convenient and efficient transportation that will make people's lives better. We are excited now to enter a new dimension of mobility," Satoshi Toshida, senior managing director at Honda.

The Japanese company hopes to sell the HondaJet in the United States thanks to a partnership with Piper Aircraft Inc. Honda will depend on Piper for sales and service of the aircraft. And like the majority of the vehicles Honda sells in America, the aircraft will also be built here in the good ol' US of A. Honda expects to sell around 200 HondaJets each year for less than $4 million each.

The sleek aircraft mounts its twin HF118 jet engines on pylons to improve passenger space, features an "all glass" ****pit, has a maximum speed of 420 knots, a range of 1,100 nautical miles, an operational ceiling of 41,000 feet and Honda claims that the jet is 1/3 more fuel efficient than its competitors.

http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/2168_large_11.jpg

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Article Source: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3520

tomato
07-27-2006, 07:33 PM
Holy crap, Honda is getting into the jet manufacturing business? All of the other jet manufacturers better watch out, cause Honda is great at taking an existing platform and pretty much refine/perfect it...

werty316
07-27-2006, 08:36 PM
I wonder if they will label any of these jets as VTEC or Type R? :lol:

Das Capitolin
07-27-2006, 08:37 PM
Holy crap, Honda is getting into the jet manufacturing business? All of the other jet manufacturers better watch out, cause Honda is great at taking an existing platform and pretty much refine/perfect it...

I totally agree! Rolls Royce makes some rather popular Jet engines, but a friend of mine made the comment once (he manages a jet hangar) that they leak a quart of oil each flight. When I asked why it would be designed to leak oil, he said "That's what Rolls Royce engines do. It's not a Honda."

GIBSON
07-27-2006, 11:09 PM
To be honest I wouldn't know if I'd want to be flying in one of those. They look good, but it's not like a car. If a honda car breaks down you probably won't die, honda building airplanes however :roll: Though honda's probably have matured a lot they didn't quite have that good of a reputation 10 years or so ago.
And since they are basically starting out again with something new...

Das Capitolin
07-28-2006, 12:27 AM
To be honest I wouldn't know if I'd want to be flying in one of those. They look good, but it's not like a car. If a honda car breaks down you probably won't die, honda building airplanes however :roll: Though honda's probably have matured a lot they didn't quite have that good of a reputation 10 years or so ago.
And since they are basically starting out again with something new...

If Honda was doing it all on their own, I would see a good reason to be worried. But since they are partnered with Piper, one the oldest names in Avionics, I think these jets will be very nice. Even the first batch.

Bio-Hazard
07-28-2006, 12:47 AM
Why not a car maker making jets, there's jet makers making cars .....;)

Saab

Bio-Hazard
07-28-2006, 12:53 AM
I totally agree! Rolls Royce makes some rather popular Jet engines, but a friend of mine made the comment once (he manages a jet hangar) that they leak a quart of oil each flight. When I asked why it would be designed to leak oil, he said "That's what Rolls Royce engines do. It's not a Honda."
Some jet engines are designed to leak because of the service ceiling they are designed to fly at and what the differant components are made out of. At low altitude they will leak a certain amount and when they reach maximum crusing altitude everything has expanded enough to stop the leaking.
Extreme high altitude jets (U-2) leak like a screen door on a sub at low altitudes..............:mrgreen:

GIBSON
07-28-2006, 01:46 AM
Some jet engines are designed to leak because of the service ceiling they are designed to fly at and what the differant components are made out of. At low altitude they will leak a certain amount and when they reach maximum crusing altitude everything has expanded enough to stop the leaking.
Extreme high altitude jets (U-2) leak like a screen door on a sub at low altitudes..............:mrgreen:
Well indeed, they have to calculate those things in. At the hight those planes are flying the air pressure has gone down quite a bit. It does make me wonder, wouldn't using more rubber limit the amount of oil that's leaking?

Bio-Hazard
07-28-2006, 05:31 AM
Rubber at those altitudes freezes and then breaks. In a lot mo modern high tech motors they use a lot of synthetics used to stop/reduce leakage.